O2 Web Top-Up not recognising a valid O2 PAYG number

[pgn]

My monthly web top-up for younger son's PAYG phone failed at the first hurdle earlier, complaining that the entered mobile number (tried with leading 0 or leading +44, no difference!) is not an O2 PAYG Number, see screenshot below.

Web top-up for his sister's phone worked fine.

I usually copy-paste the appropriate number from my phone contacts each time I top either phone up.

This PAYG number has never, since getting it direct from O2 some 3 or so years ago, been with another provider.

I eventually got the phone topped-up via 4444, using the credit card I usually use for the purpose of top-ups, see the PS below for observations on the 4444 service experience.

 - What has changed to make my attempted web top-up of the number fail all of a sudden?

PS. The 4444 top-up line works fine, but is (a) tedious, (b) error-prone as the number has to be manually entered, and (c) asks for details in a different order from the web top-up page - first the number to be topped-up, then credit card details, address validation and postcode validation next, then, at the very end, the required top-up amount.

The other PAYG number in the house whistled straight through the Web Top-Up process, weird!

 

 

[pgn]

And to add insult to 8njury, I get charged £3.02 for calling the O2 Top-Up line to top up the O2 PAYG number above that O2's Web Top-Up service thinks is not an O2 PAYG number:

Come on, O2, that number should be a zero charge number, really! After all, it is getting you a top-up, so why should you be forced to pay more to pay you money?

 

So I would like to know how I can get that refunded while I am about it, please.

[Cleoriff]

I was PAYG for years. Never once failed on the 4444 number, even when I was abroad.

Nor was I charged (at home or abroad)

Also in the good old days, I had 3 UK cards registered to my account and once I had used them, I only had to put the last 4 digits of card and CVV number. I was never asked for number. The question asked THEN was 'Is the phone you want to top up the one you are calling from?' (Press 1 for yes)

If I was topping up my sons phone, press 2 for NO, then had to give full number.

This was in the days before Big Bundles were invented 😂

[pgn]

And now that @Martin-O2 has repaired the Guide: How to find help & contact O2 short link, I see that the number that is missing from the normal O2 Pay-by-phone link is shown therein:

vs what the o2.co.uk page shows:

See that 0845 number in the second screenshot, the one I rang as 4444 was not playing ball?

See it is an 0345 number in the box copied from the Forum Contact O2 Guide?

Correct me if I am wrong, but 0345 and 0845 are both non-geographic numbers, but 0345 attracts 16p/min charge, 0845 attracts 65p/min, when called from an O2 Contract mobile.

Reference to saynoto0870.com, which I failed to realise, reveals:

Despicable behaviour, as calls to both numbers will net O2 a minimum £10 top-up fee, really - and 4444 is the free option, if your O2 phone (PAYG or Contract) puts you through.

[Cleoriff]

Pretty appalling really. People top up because their balance is low or non existant, so to shove that sort payment on top of it, is adding insult to injury @pgn 

[pgn · Accepted solution]

I've seen a couple of similar calls for help on the Forum this weekend regarding the O2 Web Top-Up page not recognising a valid O2 PAYG number correctly (see the little red warning below the field for the number to top-up below) and thus preventing the customer from topping up the account on-line.

This intermittent warning, incorrect as it turns out, begs a question for @ColinO2 and the 360 migration - is this a by-product of said PAYG phone number/account being moved across to 360, assuming PAYG is in frame for 360 at this time?

Meantime, via a protracted process (started around lunchtime on 26-Apr) using Twitter DMs to the O2 Social Media Team, I have today been told the £3.02 charge to my Contract phone (yes, 4444 was not playing ball at the time either!) will be refunded to my bill, with these observations from the O2 Social Media Team:

1. 27-Apr: Hey there 😢 The top up line is a free number to call so you should not have been charged for this. Could you send us a screenshot of the charge?
   
2. 01-May: We've raised a credit for £3.02. This will show on your next bill which will be produced in June. In [case] you ever need to top up again we'd advise you use the 03 number as all 0845 numbers are chargeable. We've raised this with the relevant teams here as well. We hope this helps.

One thing I would like to point out here on the Forum, should @Martin-O2 or @Breanna choose to make a note to O2, is that O2 do permit free calls, link here, to certain 0845 and similar 0870 premium-rate numbers - just not to one of their own numbers used for PAYG top-ups, 08456 06 22 77, which is publicised prominently on the "Top up by phone" section of O2's own "Ways to pay" page: 

So as it is a bank holiday today, and based on recent history for credits from the Forum Rewards, I was surprised, nay, stunned, to see a credit in my "Recent Charges" for a Goodwill Misinformation payment of -3.02 this evening.  For which I am grateful. Persistence does pay off, it seems.

Here endeth the saga of the monthly top-up for one of the PAYG phones in the pgn household. For now.

[Cleoriff]

Thankfully, that number is not in the guide written by me. It's the 0345 number. I wont be changing it any time soon!

[pgn]

I don't think you need to change it, @Cleoriff - your recent update to it keeps it fresh. And as for 360, well, if they are migrating most recent accounts first, some of the regulars on here will be the last to know what the "new" system looks like 🤣

Actually more food for thought for @ColinO2, I'd've thought - unless the Khoros merger plans for VM and O2 Forum platforms and content means Guides are supplanted by whatever VM have over their side 😖

Maybe the Guides Section link will actually work afterwards, instead of leaving you at the top of each guide as it does today 👍

[pgn]

---

@pgn wrote:

1. 01-May: We've raised a credit for £3.02. This will show on your next bill which will be produced in June. In [case] you ever need to top up again we'd advise you use the 03 number as all 0845 numbers are chargeable. We've raised this with the relevant teams here as well. We hope this helps.

---

Hi @Martin-O2 and @Breanna - this number still shows on the main "Ways to top up" page:

Would you be able to add this as a review item at your next meeting with O2 to get an update on misleading, and costly, contact numbers when zero-cost alternatives exist and are cited in the Forum's own PAYG Top-Up guide (thanks @Cleoriff), please?

Thanks 👍

[pgn]

Hi @Dave-O2 - this "expensive" 0845 number still shows up on O2's Web Top-Up page if you look for Telephone Top-Up.

Any chance you can see about getting it corrected so unsuspecting Topper-Uppers do not get lured into paying for the privilege of spending their money with O2?  Seems it passed the previous Forum Managers by...

Detail in the thread above if you need convincing 😎